Call on him for't: but, to confound such time, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Enter a Messenger. Leh. Here's more news. Mes. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; That only have fear'd Cæsar :3 to the ports Cas. I should have known no less : It hath been taught us from the primal state, And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mes. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind :5 Many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime 6 Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt :7 Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Cas. Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassals. When thou once [1] Call on him, is, visit him. Says Cæsar If Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by surfeits and dry bones. JOHNS [2] Boys old enough to know their duty. JOHNS. [3] Those whom not love but fear made adherents to Cæsar, now show their affection for Pompey JOHNS. [4] i.c. the malcontents. MAL. [5] To ear, is to plough. JOH. [6] Turn pale at the thought of it. JOH. [7 Youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. STEE. [8] Wassel is here put for intemperance in general. See Macbeth, p. 25. The old copy, however, reads vaissailes. STEEV. Vassals is, without question, the true reading. HENLEY. Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, Which beasts would cough at: Thy palate then did deign Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, Lep. It is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Thrives in our idleness. Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly To 'front this present time. Cas. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker. Cas. Doubt not, sir ; I knew it for my bond.4 [Exeunt. [3] There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold coloured slime; to this appearance the poet here refers. HENLEY. [4] That is, to be my bounden duty. MASON. Give me to drink mandragora.9 Char. Why, madam ? Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, My Antony is away. Char. You think of him Too much. Cleo. O, treason! Char Madam, I trust, not so. Cleo. Thou, eunuch, Mardian ! Mar. What's your highness' pleasure? Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honest to be done : Yet have I fierce affections, and think, What Venus did with Mars. Cleo. O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony ! Do bravely, horse for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men.'-He's speaking now, Or murmuring, Where's my serpent of old Nile ? With most delicious poison :-Think on me, And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæsar,2 Enter ALEXAS. Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail ! [9] Mandragora-a plant of which the infusion was supposed to procure sleep. Shakspeare mentions it in Othello : "Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep-," [1] A burgonet-is a kind of helmet. [2] In allusion to Cæsar's baldness. STEEV. HENLEY. JOH NS. Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony ! How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses,— Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends Her opulent throne with kingdoms: All the east, Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry? Alex.Like to the time o'the year between the extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry. Cleo. O well-divided disposition !—Note him, O heavenly mingle-Be'st thou sad, or merry, So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? Cleo. Who's born that day When I forget to send to Antony, Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.- Char. O that brave Cæsar! Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cæsar! Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cæsar paragon again [3] Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts base metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform transmutation, a medicine. JOHNS. My man of men. Char. By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you. Cleo. My sallad days; When I was green in judgment :-Cold in blood, Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day АСТ II. SCENE I-Messina. A Room in POMPEY's House. Entér POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS. Pom. IF the great gods be just, they shall assist The deeds of justest men. Mene. Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny. Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for. Mene. We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers By losing of our prayers. Pom. I shall do well: The people love me, and the sea is mine; My power's a crescent, and my auguring hope In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money, where Of both is flatter'd ; but he neither loves, Nor either cares for him. Men. Cæsar and Lepidus are in the field; A mighty strength they carry. Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false. Men. From Silvius, sir. Pom. He dreams; I know,they are in Rome together, [3] By sending out messengers. JOHNS. [4] The meaning is, While we are praying, the thing for which we pray is losing its value. JOHNS. [5] The poet's allusion is to the moon; and Pompey would say, he is yet but a half moon, or crescent; but his hopes tell him, that crescent will come to a full orb. THEOB. |